Petit lapin (Little bunny)
by Pajaros en la cabeza
Summary: Translation of my fanfic "Petit lapin". Scout angers Merasmus accidentally and he transforms him into a seemingly innocent and defenseless animal. At least that is what he thought. Anyway, Scout finds himself in a predicament no guns or bats can get him out of. The preview image is a picture by Kethavel on DeviantArt, it doesn't belong to me. K plus for language. NOW COMPLETE
1. A hairy mess

_**TEAM FORTRESS 2 IS A GAME BY VALVE**_

* * *

"SCOUT!"

_Clash!_

"What was that noise? Scout! What have you done?!"

"It was him, he made me-!"

"Why did you think it was a good idea to play with that damned ball in here? Are you two years old?"

"But-!"

"I want to hear no excuses! Come on! Get out of here!"

Not only did Scout walk out of the practice room, but he also left the base. He put his hood on and wanted to hit every single thing in his way but since there was only a road, electricity towers and arid ground around him, he lay into imaginary enemies.

"Bunch of assholes...They think I'm two, alright...Morons...Bullies...You're not that old and I ain't that young...AM I BOTHERIN' HERE TOO?! Jerks...When I hit a BLU right in the nut and knock him out you don't mind that much about the ball...Pyro can set the couches on fire, Demo can try out his explosives and Medic leaves blood and shit around but me, sure, I can't do that, 'cause I'm the little one...Go fuck yourselves, all of you!"

He walked. He walked. He walked. Even though he didn't have a particular destination in mind he supposed he could go to the town and drink something...But now that he thought about it, he had left his driving license back at the base and no barman would believe he was an adult. Shit. Anyway, he kept walking. If he couldn't drink alcohol, it didn't matter, he would blow up his own stomach with soda. And he would it a great bucket of chicken too. Oh, wait, he hadn't taken any money either. Double shit. His frustration increased. Grumbling all the time, he hit the ball again and again, now that there was no one around who would shout at him for it. He also swang his bat in the air, imagining he broke an enemy as well as an ally's ribcage. And it helped him warm up.

He grabbed the ball and looked at it. He pictured it was Heavy's bald head. Furiously, he hit it and it resulted to be the best hit in his life. So much that he regretted there was no one around to see it. He had to run after the ball. When he saw where it had landed, he gritted his teeth. It had hit a lady who, surrounded by suitcases, was hitchhiking on one side of the road.

"Oh, crap...H-Hey! Are you alright?"

The lady stood up and Scout stopped brusquely. It was no lady, he was just wearing a robe. It was Merasmus. The blow had made that ugly skull hat of his fall to the ground and broke one of its horns.

"Gah!"

"Who dares to...?! You..." roared the wizard, pointing at him with a bony finger.

Scout carried no more weapons than his bat, and that wasn't enough to face Merasmus, having into account how much it took to his partners and him when they worked as a team. So he had no other choice than to flee from that challenge.

But he found that his feet were glued to the ground. He was incapable of moving. Merasmus approached. He almost looked bigger with each step he took.

"One only desires to go on holidays, rest from the torture of having a roomate who is immortal and an idiot and the chase of the Japanese mafia, spend some peaceful time harming nobody...and he gets hit in the head. Did you think that Merasmus' head was a bullseye, mortal?"

"Let me go! It was an accident! Leave me alone!"

"No excuses, you fool! You are going to pay this insolence with blood..."

He was just a few feet away from Scout. What did he intend to do with him? Scout kept shaking, telling him again and again that he didn't want to hit him out of Halloween season, but Merasmus didn't listen. He didn't stop struggling to move, his feet not lifting an inch.

"Run, run, run...It seems that's all that tiny brain of yours thinks about. Else, you would have known it is a mistake to challenge Merasmus.

"Didn't you hear me?! I said I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Just like a hare. A simple, stupid hare."

Scout saw how Merasmus' eyes glowed in a way that he didn't like at all. He would have given anything to be able to move. Although he couldn't feel his legs, he kept trying using all of his strength.

"Yes...Why not matching mind and body? It will be funny, very funny. You have laughed enough at Merasmus; now it will be Merasmus who will laugh at your woe."

"What the hell are you saying, man?" Scout muttered.

Merasmus stopped talking and showed Scout what he meant.

The young mercenary saw how he extended a hand to him as he muttered something in a language he didn't identify. His hand irradiated an intense green light. Scout took a step back. Now he could move, but he didn't run. He couldn't.

He felt heat taking over his body, first his cheeks, then his ears, next, the fingers and finally extended all over his body; weakly at first, seconds later it became suffocating. Instead of running, he used the regained control over his body to obey the impulse he felt of getting rid of his clothes. The sweatshirt, the tank top he wore under it, the pants, the shoes, the two pairs of thick socks, and even the underwear. He didn't even stop to consider that he was dedicating that old crazy wizard a striptease. It was unbearable. Not even naked and with that cold he could get rid of that heat. It was as it was in his bones and was melting them. It was driving him crazy.

The heat didn't stop him from feeling an itch all over his body. When he looked, he let out a horrorized shriek. He had been waiting for years for the hair to come out, but not that much, and not so dense.

Merasmus laughed. Had he known, he would have made popcorn to eat while he saw how that annoying brat writhed, how the ears elongated as his body shortened, how the whiskers appeared, how the spine arched, forcing him on fours and stretched creating a tail.

Scout fell to the ground curled up against himself. Then, that horrible feeling disappeared, leaving him dizzy. When he tried to stand up, he saw he was completely unable to.

Merasmus laughed cruelly.

"Let's see if you want to play with the ball now."

And, spreading his arms, he was surrounded by a green halo and disappeared along with his luggage.

Silence. Scout came out of the bunch of clothes that laid on the ground and looked around anxiously. He found himself completely alone. And with a bit problem.

* * *

Engineer was serving the stew when he noticed that there was a plate with no owner.

"Ey, where's Scout?" he asked.

"The kid got angry and left." Spy answered.

"How come?"

"He broke one of the windows of the practice room while playing."

"I swear to God, this boy...Always making a mess."

"Let him come whenever he wants, as long as he doesn't break anything else."

They mentioned Scout no more during the dinner. He would come when he was over it.


	2. Night out in the open

"Oh, God. Oh, dammit. Oh, God. OH, GOD."

He saw long, furry paws, just like his abdomen, twisted until he could barely catch a glimpse of a white tail, and when he placed his front paws on his head he felt long ears. He could stand on his hind legs, but in a few moments he fell again. He had to face the facts. He was a rabbit. Merasmus had turned him into a damned rabbit. He tried to calmed down and think. But he was a rabbit!

He raced back to the base. He had to tell the other guys. Surely the brainiacs would know what to do. That is, that's what he expected. In any case, if science couldn't bring him back to normal, they could always find Merasmus and beat him up until he undid the spell. Oh, how he wished to have him in front of him again! He would get what he deserved!

Night had fallen quickly as Scout walked to the town, and found himself running practically in the dark. Barely anyone could be seen around there by day, and less at night, so there was no reason to install lampposts. It wasn't a nice situation. He wished he could have brought his bat with him; it had always given him lots of confidence. Now that he was aware that he was just a rabbit, he realized he wasn't just in appeareance, but also when it came to vulnerability.

"Guess I can still bite, can't I?"

Not that it was of much use, but it was all he had.

That and the sense of smell. It was bizarre how his nose started to detect odors he had ignored minutes before, when he was a human. But he still couldn't tell what they matched with, so it was useless to him.

In his way, to think of something that wasn't the solitude he was in, he considered how he would manage to communicate with his partners. He opened his mouth and forced a word out, but he was incapable of articulate any. He only got a weird sound, like a high pitched whine. That was a problem.

He stopped. He cocked his head and raised his ears. What was that?

No, it must have been his imagination. There was not a soul in there. Maybe just a lizard and not much less. There was no water and barely any vegetation. No animal could live in there.

He was about to continue when he heard it again, this time closer. So much closer that he barely had the time to get out of the way.

He felt a nasty breath very close to his left hind leg and heard how some jaws snapped closed without catching their prey. Scout dashed away as fast as he could. He heard the galloping of the animal that chased him grunting behind him.

Not much later, the noise became more and more distant, until it finally ceased. He allowed himself to relax a bit, but stayed tense during the rest of his journey.

"What the fuck was that? A wolf? A coyote? I thought Engie was kidding when he told me about them! Shit!"

That was a close one, but next time—he hoped there wasn't one—he wouldn't let them get so close. Those long ears were useful indeed, yes, sir. Slowly, he was also gaining control over his little body. His work was to break through thugs armed to the teeth, he was alive to the date thanks to his speed and wit. He wasn't afraid of some wild dogs.

He could barely see where he was going with that darkness. The moonlight helped but it wasn't enough. He had to approach to the wall of stone, crossing the road, to see where the secret entrance was. It took him a lot of time to detect the painted canvas behind which the passage was. He slid through one side and kept running towards the entrance.

He stopped before reaching the bridge. He hadn't thought of the sentries until then. They wouldn't shoot at him, right? They would still detect him as Scout...right? It cost him quite a bit to convince himself he had to go on, that there was a great chance that they wouldn't harm him. He hated those things. When approaching the building he passed by their side very cautiously, ready to run off as soon as he heard the beep that alerted of an intruder, but the machines kept swinging to one side and the other searching for a really suspicious movement. That was a great relief to Scout. He hopped upstairs and found himself in front of the door.

Then came a disappointment: he couldn't reach the doorknob. As much as he stretched and insulted it, he couldn't reach it. He insisted on it until he opted to surrender and find an alternative way in. But they were all closed. Of course. They were not going to leave the base open so that anybody could walk in. He should have known.

In that case, all he could do was wait. They would open in the morning. He didn't like to spend the night outdoors, but it was better to stay there, close to his teammates, than in the middle of the road.

He looked for some space among the empty ammo boxes, small but sheltered from the cold air. There, he curled up against himself and closed his eyes. How cold. How he missed his bed, with warm sheets, clothes and everything. The fur prevented him from dying of cold but it wasn't too warm. It took him a lot to fall asleep. That was madness. If he had known he would have definitely left his ball inside of the drawer. What a mess he was in because of that stupid ball. Idiot, such an idiot he was. The desert was so big and he had to hit that grumpy wizard, in the head. He didn't want to admit that Spy and Heavy were right, but he had screwed up real good.

Well, he was back to the base. He was safe. There were no wolves trying to eat him around there. Everything would be fine. They would solve it in a wink. Scout insisted on that thought until he finally fell asleep.


	3. Getting into the base

Spy, instead of taking the teleporter, which was way quicker, walked his way to the dining room, taking advantage that Scout's room was on the way, to take a look. He found it just like the boy had left it the previous afternoon: the laundry scattered on the floor, a can which still had half of its content, the blinds open. Perhaps he had slept on the couch. He didn't find him there. He wasn't at the bathroom, sleeping under the shower or locked inside one of the toilets. He expected to see him in the dining room with the others, but only Medic and Heavy were there.

Scout slowly opened his eyes. What a dream he had had that night: he dreamed about Merasmus turning him into a rabbit and..."Oh, shit, that was not a dream".

He stretched until the bones of his back cracked and got out from his hideout. His routine normally consisted on going to the toilet to fight the damned morning erection, have a strong breakfast, run around the base to keep his legs fit and have a shower. But it seemed like he would be doing none of that that day. All because of that stubborn wizard.

At that time the other mercenaries also started to wake up and gather at the dining room. The door of the garage would soon be open. He only had to wait a little. He knew the routine of the smokers of the team: those days when there was no hurry, they got out at morning, around half past eight, to smoke the second cigarette of the day (the first one was usually smoked before or while they had breakfast) and chat peacebly about trifles like sports, weapons and women. That group was composd by Soldier, Demo, Sniper and Spy. Not that it was an exclusive club, since anyone could approach as long as they didn't mind filling their lungs with smoke. Medic never did; Pyro lurked very frequently, attracted by the lighters (sometimes he or she was the one to lend them); Engie sometimes paid them a visit and had no problem in accepting a cigarette exceptionally; and Heavy rarely joined because he usually had more important things to do with his free time. And him, he didn't smoke because he needed all of his lung capacity, but they kicked him out anyway because he was 'too much of a kid'.

His prediction was right. One by one, the four smokers walked out of the building. Spy lit his partners' cigarettes and started smoking.

"I haven't seen Scout anywhere" Demoman commented.

"So that's why everything was so silent" Sniper smirked.

"He might have spent the night out" Spy replied.

"Where?" Demoman asked.

"You figure it out." Spy murmured.

"He'd better come back soon." Soldier replied with his cigar hanging from his lips. "We gotta review the attack plan and he's the one sneaking through the pipes."

"Bah, I'm sure he'll be back soon." Demoman said.

The group became silent and then the subject changed to a newswoman, which encouraged a discussion in which only Demo and Soldier participated, while Sniper just listened and Spy seemed to be there only in body.

Alright. It was time to approach. He had to attract their attention with gestures. Something that was undoubtedly human. He could do a handstand or something like that. He didn't know. But there had to be something he could do.

Wait a moment. Demo was looking at him! Scout stayed still until he made sure that he had been seen and continued his path.

"Psch. Eh, kiwi" Demo caught Sniper's attention with an elbow until he turned to him. "Yer falling asleep."

"I wasn't sleeping."

"Right. Liar. You could sleep standing in the mornings. If you had to be shooting, you'd miss all the time."

"Would I? Come on, who do you think I am?"

"Could you get that rabbit right between it's eyes?"

Sniper turned into the direction he was pointing at and showed him a side smile.

"Shall we bet a beer?"

"Aye, we got a deal."

"You're a moron, Demo" Soldier told him. "That critter is very close and you're challenging the damned hawkeye".

"Yeah, if you wanted to give me a free beer, you only had to say it."

"I want to see how awake he is."

That beer was in his hand just like if he had gone to get it from the fridge himself. Sniper went back inside to grab his rifle and aimed at the little animal.

"That's not a rabbit, that's a hare" he pointed out.

"What's the difference? They both have long ears."

"Hares are bigger. But they taste the same. What do you know, today I'm going to teach you my mother's recipe to make rabbit with garlic."

Scout stopped. Sniper was aiming at him. Why the hell was he aiming at him? He brusquely took a detour, avoiding the shot for a few inches.

"Ha! You missed!" Demoman celebrated it. "I knew it! You're blind as a bat in the mornings! That beer is mine!"

"I might've lost a beer but I'm eating that furry today" Sniper was determined. He recharged the weapon and aimed again.

But the hare was doing something very weird. All of them saw that. It didn't run in the opposite direction and in a straight line, but in zig-zag, with turns and unexpected stops. Sniper shot twice and missed them both.

"Bloody Hell, it's fucking Bugs Bunny" Demoman whistled.

"Motherfucker..." Sniper muttered as ashes from his cigarette fell over his shirt.

Scout ran to take refuge around a corner. However, there were no more shots. Spy lowered the Australian's gun.

"Is it worth it to waste bullets on this game?" Spy got a glimpse of the hare's tail before it disappeared. "Come one, let's go inside. The sooner we prepare everything, the better."

Soldier agreed. Sniper sighed through his nose, lowered his gun, threw away the remainings of his cigarette and shook his shirt. Spy heard him mutter something about his ability to ruin other people's fun, but he didn't mind it. Demoman walked in with the rest, leaving him finishing his cigarette alone and in peace.

The spy threw the filter to the ground and, since he didn't want to spoil his two thousand dollar-shoes, he squashed it with a stone he found. When he was stading up, he found himself in front of the hare. It was looking at him. Spy drew a smile.

"You're a little lucky guy."

He was turning around to leave, but the animal was following him.

"Staying here is not the wisest decision. I'd leave as soon as I could if I was you."

And, nevertheless, the animal didn't move. Spy smiled again and crouched down to caress it. The hare shook a bit and placed its paws on his hand.

"Spy! Spy, it's me! I'm Scout!"

The Frenchman turned around and got into the base.

Scout was left alone and shaken. What the hell was that Sniper moron shooting at him? He hated owing anything to Spy but hadn't been for him, he would have ended up dead. If only he could have talked to him and tell him who he was and what happened!

Perhaps there was some way he could communicate. Maybe using the gasoline and Pyro's matches carefully he could leave a message or...

A claxon almost made him jump. It was Engineer's van, coming into the garage. Scout got out of the way quickly, but stayed near. He could try with Engie. Yeah. He also had some brain, he could contact with him.

He positioned himself near the door waiting for the Texan to come out. And when he did, he didn't notice he was around him. A zombie could have scratched his neck, he wouldn't have turned around. He carried something in his hand and took it quickly inside. Scout got a glimpse of what it was and that was why he followed Engineer very closely. The door almost closed breaking him in half, but got to sneak in with Engineer.

The team was at the meeting room. Medic was standing next to the board, saying something, when Engineer came in. He had gone to the town first thing in the morning to get supplies for the mission and boxes of alcohol to make the three days in the base bearing, but he brought none of that.

"Guys. Look what I found on one side of the road."

The voices, conversations and murmurs ceased of a sudden when Engineer showed his partners Scout's tags.

"All of his clothes were there. And his bat. And his ball. But he, he was nowhere."

Scout couldn't see his teammates' faces from that position.


	4. A true love's kiss

Scout couldn't see a thing from that pont, so he moved a little, stood on his hind lengs and now he got to see Miss Pauling examining his clothes conscientiously, trying to find a hint, as tiny as it could be, of what happened, blood, whatever. The reveal hadn't provoked a great mess in the room, if even some surprised mutter. They agreed to call Miss Pauling immediately to inform her about the matter and she came quickly.

"Of couse he couldn't have left" Engineer's mutter could be heard. "He's a rascal but he knows his duties...Something must've happened to him..."

"But why the heck could they have taken him?" Demoman asked. "If you told me Spy's been caught, or Medic, or Engie, I'd understand, because they know things, but the kid? What for? He's here for running and little more."

Scout wished more than ever having been able to kick his behind.

"It is still problem." Heavy judged.

_"Well, thank you, fatso!"_ Scout thought.

"Yes. We have to find him as soon as possible." Pauling nodded. "Going to the town, you said?"

"Yes, on one side of the road." Engineer replied.

"There have to be footprints around. Some trace. Anything. If his clothes are there, what was inside of them has to be somewhere. Did you find anything?"

"Absolutely nothing."

In his mind, Scout made up a movie. He interpreted Miss Pauling's worry as a sign of that love which, clearly, she professed to him. He had seen her seriousness, the way she bit her under lip and touched his clothes looking desperately for something, even a diminute speck of dust, which could tell her what happened to him. Ah! She was worried sick about him!

He had to do something to show her he was there and—in a way—he was alright. He would reveal himself to her. He would stand in front of her, show her he was Scout and she would lose her mind, pounce on him to kiss him, like in a fairytale and...

...Wait a moment...

"Wait a moment! Of course! The fairytale of the frog prince! Mom used to tell me that one a billion times when I was little, I know that crap! A true love's kiss breaks the spell! True love's kiss, true love's kiss, true love's kiss...Miss Pauling! She must be my princess!"

Excitement made his fur bristle. He knew how to get out from that mess.

"Everything he carried with him."

"So, he is either naked somewhere or his body has vanished."

"It seems so."

"I am more inclined to the second one."

"Hmpf..."

"I believe the enemy has developed some kind of weapon that disintegrates the flesh."

"I don't think so, Soldier."

"What if that's true?"

"I asked the Administrator to check the cameras and she didn't get Scout since he left the base. And she hates not to know what is going on. That's why she sent me here as soon as possible. Listen, he looked pretty pissed on that recording, isn't this some kind of...?"

"Well, yeah, Scout has some little kid's tantrums, but he's not going to take off his clothes with this cold or get rid of his bat. Something had to happen to that boy."

"You know something from the BLUs?"

"No."

"Of course, because...What else could it be?"

The lady sat with her arms crossed and Scout saw his chance. How pretty she looked, as always. She really looked like a princess from a fairytale. It was hard for him to stop thinking about her beauty, but eventually ran to her encounter. With a hop, he sat on her lap, startling her.

"Eh! What is t...?"

Scout placed his front paws on her chest and leaned on to press his lips on hers—though he wasn't very sure about him still having lips.

Nothing happened. Only Miss Pauling held him in her hands as if he was some kind of critter.

"What do you think you're doing, lil' imp?" Engineer grabbed Scout by the ears and lifted him in the air. Scout kicked: that hurt a lot.

"What the hell's a hare doing here?" Soldier asked, looking at it with a smirk.

"It'd better not have ticks." Miss Pauling complained, running a hand through her mouth.

"Eh, Sniper, look, like the one that dodged ya before" Demoman pointed at it to his partner and he frowned.

Spy had been standing with a lost gaze till the irruption of the animal. His eyes turned to it and went back to his thoughts.

"I think it's the same" Demoman conjectured. "It's been wandering around the base. It must have come in in a moment of distraction. You're not going to kill it, right?"

"I'd be glad to do it." Sniper answered to him.

"Oh, it comes like a godsend! I got the new scapels just yesterday!" Medic looked at Scout in such a way that he ignored the pain in his ears and shrank in fear.

"Fine, you have a new guinea pig then, Doc."

Engineer walked to a corner and placed Scout inside of an empty ammo box.

"Eh! Get me out of here! Engie! Guys! Eh!"

"Well, as I was saying" Miss Pauling said, moving in her seat a little, uncomfortable. "We have to find him as soon as we can, I don't care if he's in a bed with a girl, inside of a car's trunk, in the enemy's hands or...whatever. Go find him."

And with that everything was said. Although the miss kept to herself that the main interest her boss had in finding him was the worry that Scout betrayed them or spread information he shouldn't. Because the old woman had her own hypothesis: the young man had drunk up to his gills and had been doing crazy stuff in his birthday suit. And drunk people were very dangerous people.

Now Scout couldn't see a thing. He heard movement but nothing else. The box allowed him to move a little, it wasn't very big, though. He felt imprisoned. He supported himself on its walls and jumped unsuccessfully. Yes, he was imprisoned.

A head peeked into the box, precisely the last person—if he even was—that Scout wanted to see: Pyro. He looked at the hare with extreme curiosity, muttering something under his mask. Scout felt his blood freezing and ran to the other extreme of the box. Pyro extended a hand to him, like a claw. The claw of death.

"Pyro, leave that." He heard Medic say. "We have work to do. You'll play with the bunny later."

Pyro gazed at Scout during some seconds and then disappeared from sight. Scout fell, relieved. The bad thing was that he would be back and then his survival chances would drop. He had to get out of there.

Some lettuce leaves fell on his head. Scout raised it and saw that Demoman was leaving them along with a bowl with water.

"Its last supper," he heard him explain to someone, "because something tells me it's not getting out alive, the poor thing, with Pyro and Medic around. It deserves it, for having come in here and embarrassing the kiwi."

Scout felt offended at first, but his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten anything since the previous day, so he couldn't help biting the lettuce leaves. Anyway, he needed strength to come up with a plan to get out of there. It was not only a matter of telling the other he was Scout: he also had to find a way to get out alive from that base full of madmen.


	5. Out of the box

Scout took a moment to sit and think. Something which, frankly, he didn't do very often, but he did it as best as he could.

Alright. First of all, he really didn't know if it had been a good idea to come to the base. If Pyro didn't make roasted hare with him, Medic would gut him, or Sniper would skin him and serve him for dinner. He was almost better off in the desert with the coyotes. Though, of course, he didn't want to end in the stomach of one of those or ran over by a car either. He couldn't even say he would have been better with Merasmus. If he thought about it carefully, he was, as he would often say, "really screwed".

He regretted that the love kiss didn't work. He had no idea about magic, so he didn't know what else he could do. The one who knew about spells and curses was Demo but, of course, he was in no condition of asking him anything. And facing Merasmus was almost completely out of question: not only because he didn't know where to find him, but because he had nothing to do against in his state. There has to be a way to catch the guys' attention, so they could see that he wasn't a stupid smart hare but a human trapped inside of an animal's body. Him. But what could he do when he couldn't talk?

He came up with nothing and that box seemed to keep ideas out. Scout saw how hours passed by eating lettuce without being able to do much more. Not even one idea came to his head. He didn't want to admit it but maybe the wizard had come up with a hell of a curse: he was very screwed, lost...Dead. No doubt about it. If only his partners had found some kind of trace.

Since it was useless, he was determined to quit the thinking and use the brawns more. Alright, he didn't have much of that now, but he had enough not to surrender.

He decided that there was no use in waiting in there to be torn apart. He pounced on the walls of the box. He got impulse and charged again. The ammo box wobbled. Once again. He took a little ran and hit using his paws. The box wobbled again. Yes, it was falling. He tried again with all of his strength. Then, the box fell on one side and he rolled out. He stood up, shaking his tail in triumph, and ran away from there, towards the teleporter. Perhaps he could grab a tshirt, make a gesture or...

Some voices alarmed him. The boys were back. Fearing finding himself again in Pyro's or Medic's claws, he ran to hide inside of a gap next to the fridge.

"They had no idea of what happened to Scout. So, we tortured them for nothing."

"Ah, you gave them the chance to speak? Didn't you start punching and burning them alive as soon as you got there?"

"Well, at first we did."

When he peeked out a bit, he saw Soldier sitting on one of the chairs and resting his feet on the table they often played cards on, spoiling it with the mud of his boots, and sigh tired. Pyro, however, didn't seem very downhearted, he sat to play with a lighter, trying to console herself after finding out that the pretty bunny, which he was dying to see again to play, was gone. Taking advantage of their distraction, Scout ran to the teleporter.

Solder noted how the device emmited a sound and sparkled. He stood up and walked to it. After a very brief inspection, he teleported through it. The next second, he found himself in the hallway. He looked at one side and the other. It seemed incredible that he could see something with that helmet covering his eyes, but he did. And he saw nothing. He teleported himself back to the recreation room.

"Engie, this piece of junk is failing again."

"Perhaps it was a fly again."

Scout came out of his hideout as soon as Soldier vanished. Now he only had to get into his room.

When he found himself in front of the door, he noticed a tiny but crucial detail: HOW THE HELL WAS HE GOING TO OPEN IT IF HE COULDN'T THE DOORKNOB?

Well, he hadn't gotten out of the box for nothing. Again, he took a run and tried to reach for the doorknob with a jump, but the only thing he did was hitting his head hard against the door. Instead of feeling down, he remembered an old trickery of his. "The double jump has never failed me". He only hoped he could do it on fours. He took impulse again, ran, jumped, jetted himself in the air and...Eureka! He found himself holding onto the doorknob desperately. With his weight it was going down and...

It was then when he noticed that there was someone behind him.

"Oh, good Lord, please tell me it's not Medic..."

Luck smiled to him again because it was not Medic. It was Spy, and was gazing at the animal which was pending from the doorknob of Scout's bedroom with a cigarette in hand. Gravity took effect and Scout fell to the floor. Spy kept staring at him. Scout looked at him.

"Mais, qu'est-ce que c'est?" he heard the Frenchman mutter.

He didn't speak frog, but he hoped it was nothing bad.

"Si malin, ce petit..."

The weak smile which appeared on Spy's face soothed him a little. But not too much.

Spy took a step towards him and Scout shrank. He was ready to dash away when Spy delicately took him in his hands. Scout tossed and turned but Spy caressed him.

"Ne t'inquiète pas. Tu mérites d'être gracié, si tu es arrivé ici."

What was happening? Where was he taking him? Spy walked carrying him in his hands but not to where the other were but towards...his smoking room? That place no mortal could ever come into because it was Spy's exclusive place, even though it took enough space for all the members of the team and even the guests they wanted to call over to enjoy? Why was he taking him there?

But yes, there he was. And was again put into a box, smaller, but seemingly more exclusive than the other one he had inhabited, having brought expensive wine; to which Spy added an old cushion and a pair of decent bowls.

"J'espère que tu ne sors d'ici. Je devrais te tuer si tu tombes poils dans mon sofa. Je te donnerais nourriture et un peu d'eau."

Too bad that Scout didn't understand that warning. Spy walked away and Scout supported himself on the walls of the box to see where he was going, not able to see anything. He heard how the door closed.

"Oh, shit...Don't tell me Spy just made me his pet..."

* * *

**Translations (in order of appearance):**

**"But, what is this?"**

**"How smart, this little one..."**

**"Don't worry. You deserve to be pardoned, if you got to get here."**

**"I hope you don't get out of here. I would have to kill you if you left hairs on my sofa. I will give you food and a bit of water."**


	6. The smoking room

Despite time passing desperately slow at Spy's smoking room, Scout was surprised to find out that, if his calculations weren't wrong, four days had passed since he came along. He knew that because Spy spent a couple of hours there before going to sleep. He didn't pay much attention to him, but at least he made sure every day that he had food and water and that everything was alright.

Everytime he took a look at the inside of the box, Scout started running around, stood up and tried to scream. Of course, everything was in vain. Spy was too much of a moron to get a thing and he didn't know how to gesture such a crazy message.

Sadness was getting over Scout. He didn't know what to do anymore. Now he was going to spend the rest of his life inside a box, eating lettuce, rabbit feed, while his teammate, his family and Miss Pauling presumed him dead. A lump formed in his throat whenever he thought of his mother: he had promised he would go back come safe and sound. He felt more and more afflicted, and got to a point when all he did all day long was curl up against himself and sigh about his lost life.

The fifth day, Spy changed his routine: he took him out of the box and sat with him on the armchair. He did it with his ungloved hands and after that he didn't smoke a single cigarette or served himself even just a glass of alcohol. He sat and all he did was stroke him. It wasn't pleasant at all for Scout to feel Spy's fingers in his back. It made him think of daggers in the back, those that frequently 'happened' around him. Scout couldn't help squirming and that didn't do anything but making Spy insist.

"Ssssh, arrête, mignon, sssh..."

Scout understood that, so that he stopped doing that, he had to keep calm. It was kind of difficult, but after a while the trembling ceased. That way, the environment was much more calm. Actually, it was incredibly cozy. Spy now caressed him very softly, almost distractedly.

"Pas de nouvelles...Aucune...Jeremy...Jeremy, mon garçon...Où est-il"

Those days at the smoking room hadn't helped Scout improve his French, but he caught something: his name. And that made him shake again.

"Sssssh..."

"Now you care about me, you fucker? Now you do?"

He wanted to let go. He would have accepted to be captured by Medic or Pyro instead of being in Spy's hands. That hypocrite. That pig. That...All words coming to his head seed lacking. But Spy was grabbing him firmly and Scout had to surrender again. That way he would place him back into the box and leave him alone. The sooner, the better. He didn't want him to touch him.

He raised his eyes to him. He had never seen him like that. So downhearted, so powerless, so worried. Definitely, nobody had been able to find any clue which could help finding him and if Spy was so depressed, that mean that the other could have lost all hope to find him.

He had never seen Spy this way. He almost couldn't have imagined he could experiment sadness...or something in general.

"Did you feel this way when you left mom alone and knocked up? Bah, sure you didn't. Now remorse is biting your ass, but you aren't sorry. Of course not. You're a spy. Life to you is toying around with gorgeous gals in each continent, getting into trouble and driving expensive cars. You don't care about anything else. You wouldn't have given a damn if I had been beaten up to death back in Boston. Bah. You disgust me."

But it was certainly the first time he saw Spy like that, and it was not a pretty sight. He had thought it would be a great thing to see him suffer, but it wasn't. He hated seeing him that way, that was the honest truth.

"What would that change? Nah...I...That should teach you not to treat people like crap...Look at you. You go around like your farts don't stink, and you come to your private room to cry."

Once one got used, that situation was frankly comfortable...With the fireplace, Scout felt mighty good. He closed the eyes and curled up. Spy kept caressing him for a long while, until he finally stopped. Scout raised his head. He had fallen asleep. (He remembered a conversation he had had once with Sniper, about the possibility that Spy slept with his eyes open, and supposed it was just a urban legend.)

Now what? Scout preferred not to move. At least for a while. It was really comfortable.

He could have taken this chance to bite his fingers or the nose, risking to lose his protection and ending his life. He wanted to do it. But he quickly changed his mind.

"I'm not like you."

When he realized, Scout was opening his eyes. He had apparently fallen asleep. Truth be told, that atmosphere encouraged to have a little sleep, and Spy's lap was soft. He stretched, waking Spy up. The two of them exchanged a lazy gaze. Spy smiled.

"Tu dois être fatigué d'être dans la boîte. Je suppose tu peux faire une promenade autour de la base. J'irai avec toi, pour te défendre du monstre."

Scout again didn't know what he was talking about, but the tone of his voice when he told him and the stroke which followed told him it was sometihng good. He would have to wait until the next day to find out: in the meantime, he would have to sleep inside of the box, like every night.

* * *

**Translation**

*** "Sssh, stop, cutie, sssh..."**

*** "No news...None...Jeremy...My boy...Where is he?"**

*** "You must be tired of being inside of the box. I suppose you can have a walk around the base. I'll go with you, to protect you from the monster."**


	7. Not pet: Scout

Spy had taken that hare as a pet. The team couldn't help smiling at the sight of Spy, who had never liked animals, walking around the base along with that hare, keeping it company as it hopped around like it was at its own home. Although there were lots of jokes at first, they ceased soon, honestly: it was such a smart hare that it was no surprise that Spy had taken it under his wing.

That hare was devilish smart, yes, sir. When the bread monster found it and opened its jaws to devour it, the hare dodged it in such a way that left everyone impressed. When it pounced on it, the hare jumped on its back and the monster, incapable of stopping in time, went head first into the wall and was left there, dizzy. It tried again and the hare jumped again over it. Again and again, until the creature understood it would never try that snak and, with its pride hurt, preferred to keep pursuing Medic's doves.

Not only Spy, the others also started to get fond of it. The lettuce leaves gave way to a more varied diet. From time to time they held it in their arms and caressed it. They considered it a very brave 'critter' and a fighter, the best mascot for the team. Not that Scout liked the idea of becoming somebody's mascot, but at least he had protection.

"I feel culprit for what happened."

Scout raised his ears when he heard those words from Heavy. He was talking to Demoman and Enginner in the kitchen as he prepared dinner. Demoman had him on his lap and waited drinking and scratching Scout's ears. That was much more pleasant than he could have ever thought.

"No, man, it wasn't your fault that he left." Engineer consoled him.

"It was. I shouted at him and that is why he broke window. He left because I screamed."

The other two tried to make him forget that idea but Heavy insisted on blaming himself. It was his fault and only his. It really made Scout feel pity, that's why as soon as he had the chance to be near him he rubbed his face against his enormous hand.

_"I forgive you, big man."_

"I do not give up. After dinner I will look for him."

"But we already looked everywhere." Engineer told him.

"I don't care. I want to find him alive or dead. I do not give up."

"What the bloody hell, you are right. He has to be somewhere, forcibly, even if he's been taken away by aliens." Demoman nodded. "If you go, I'll go with you."

Scout smiled. Those were good friends. He would have done everything to save them the trouble and calm their worry. He had to tell them somewho that he was alright, that he was among them. There had to be a way.

Demoman caressed his head and he played with him to bite his fingers.

There had to be a way.

That night, as he ate the carrot bits Heavy had set aside expressly for him, he put all of his neurons to work on some solution, before Heavy and Demoman finished dinner and left to lose their time, ammunition and perhaps even their lives.

When he looked at the table and noted an absence, Medic's, he had a crazy idea.

_"Okay. Magic. What do I know about magic? Walking skeletons, killer gigantic eyes, books that talk and explode...Not like fairytales, but...Well, the fact that the love kiss thing didn't work doesn't mean nothing does. Hmmm...What else did tales say? Bullshit, like bird that talk...Wait...Talk...Eh! I can't talk to people but can animals talk to each other?"_

It wouldn't hurt to try. He left the dining room and ran to the infirmary. Luckily, the door was open because Medic wasn't doing anything in special, just so absorbed in the reading of a book that he had prefered to finish it and then go have dinner. He didn't notice Scout coming in nor him approaching to the operating table where three doves, Archimedes among them, rested perched on the medigun.

_"Eh! You guys! Eh! Can you hear me? Do you understand me?"_

Perhaps they didn't understand a single word he said, or perhaps Scout wasn't familiarized with the language of the doves, because all they did was to tilt their necks, look to each other, look at him and coo. Scout sighed.

_"Nothing. Well, I had to try..."_

But the neurons liked that thinking thing and made him focus his attention on something hanging from the operating table. A bag with blood; he didn't get to read whose it was. That didn't matter, anyway. He knew what to do.

Medic was startles when there was a racket. When he raised his eyes from the book, he saw that the hare had knocked the hanger down and was biting the bag of blood which hanged from it.

"Eh!" he exclaimed, standing up.

After a good bite, with the help of his paws, he got to make a good hole in the bad and squeezed it, spilling the blood on the floor.

"Eh! Raus! Raus!"

He didn't listen to Medic's screams. Staining his front paws with the blood, he moved aside to scrub the floor with it.

"Spy's gonna hear me...I will cut that animal's ear and sew them to him...I'm going to..."

His anger vanished when he started to find sense in the trace the hare was leaving on the floor.

C...O...U...T...

Not taking his eyes out of the scene, walking backwards towards the door of the infirmary, he peeked outside.

"Boys! Eh! Come, everybody! You have to see this!"

Engineer came first and removed his googles to see well what he had in front of his very eyes. Then came Demoman and Soldier together; they shared a few murmurs before keepind deadly quiet. Sniper, after Heavy, and Pyro approached, not believing what they were seeing. Finally Spy came, whose cigarette was left pending from his lips.

Scout finished and sat on the floor to gaze at his partners.

I AM SCOUT I AM SCOUT I AM SCOUT I AM HERE

Was everything clear now?

At first he thought not. Nobody moved or said a single word. But seeing each of the faces around him, he understood he had made it.

Soldier was the one who ended the silence to declare what was obvious:

"Scout!"

The hare, everyone could have swore to God Himself, grinned.


	8. Magic words

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to spend money on that whim, having into account how much he owed the Japanese mafia and they had threatened to break his legs, but he almost never had the chance to relax. After trying the hydro massage shower in the room, Merasmus completely forgot about mobsters, mercenary and the whole world. He felt so great he even sang. That was the life. In a beautiful city, in a room with all modern amenities and, most of all, away from problematic people.

He got out of the bathroom only with the bath robe and his underwear on and turned on the television, cable. A show he was hooked on was about to start.

They knocked at the door just when his behind was about to touch the bed.

"Room service."

Ah, just in time! Nothing better than a good snack while he watched an excellent production...

In the precise moment he opened the door, Merasmus realized something: he had not ordered anything.

Demoman came in with a good blow, making him fall to the floor. It was something to be thankful about, that Merasmus had his underwear on, since he fell spread-legged. Scout jumped onto his chest and he glared at him with all rage a little animal like him could inspire.

"Merasmus! We came to beat you up!" Soldier announced.

"Soldier...But...How did you find me? How can you always figure out where I am and ruin my...?"

"You did this to him." Demoman pointed at Scout. "Now you're going to fix it."

"Wait...Merasmus..." the wizard babbled.

Demo had no patience to put up with nonsense. He grabbed Merasmus from the gown, forced him to stand up and his only eye glowered at him.

"I want it yesterday."

"I...Eh...I'd do it, but..."

"But what?"

"But Merasmus does not know how to revert it..."

"You're lying!"

"Demo, Demo, calm down. Leave it to me." Soldier softly pushed Demoman aside, grabbed Merasmus by the robe and he shook him himself. "Quit the bullshit, Merasmus, and take him back to how he was!"

"Merasmus is telling you the truth! I don't know how to do it!" the wizard's gaze looked for the members of the team which looked the less angry, or at least were not shouting and pushing him around. "I know how to cast thousands of curses, but the funny thing is putting the receiver into trouble, thus they have no cure, and if it does exist, I don't know what it could be!"

"It could have no cure?" Sniper exclaimed.

His eyes looked down to Scout and saw his ears drop, receiving that those news like a cold shower. He looked back at Merasmus.

"Think twice. There must be a way."

"Maybe, but I have no idea."

"He's lying. We're gonna beat him good and see if that puts his brain to work." Demoman threatened him with his fist. Pyro, by his side, was ready to use his flamethrower against him.

"Wait, Demo, I think he's telling the truth" Engineer placed a hand on his shoulder to stop Demo.

"Of course Merasmus is telling the truh! Look...There are wizards out there who are specialized in these things, books about it...I could...I could look dor them...I don't know how long it will take me but...

The mercenaries exchanged a brief look and some gestures.

"We will look with you." Heavy said to him. "This way there will be no tricks."

Soldier released Merasmus at last and he, as he got dressed, regretted the day he thought of sharing rooms with that man.

* * *

Somehow Merasmus had managed to get back the large library he had lost when Soldier turned his castle into a racoon sanctuary, and he had it all piled up in the storage unit where he lived, in piled which reached the ceiling. It almost seemed impossible that the wizard could have space to live there, as he explained. Heim, Sniper, Spy, Soldier and Pyro had gone help him get contacts in the magic world. The rest examined the books. It was a task which would take them days, because most of them were in Latin, ancient Greek and other languages which the team did not know or were extinct. Luckily, many of them had illustrations and the library included dictionaries and noted editions.

Scout was not going to wait until the others found the solution to his problem doing nothing. He hopped from here to there, looking for books he could examine. It was really frustrating, because with those little paws he was not able to turn the pages and one had to be careful because some of the books were impregnated with poison, as Merasmus had warned them, but he tried it anyway.

"Leave it. We'll take care of it." Engineer told him.

Scout's response was always the same: shake his head and keep trying in all ways he could think of. He didn't care it was a complicated task, even to bright minds like his partners'. It was something which affected him directly.

Medic was often distracted looking at him. It was absolutely fascinating. That hare was Scout! The boy had had to undergo an embarrassing exam by him and Engineer, during which they found signs which identified him unmistakably like Scout: a tattoo of Tom Jones hidden under the fur, which was the same tone as his hair, blue eyes unusual in a common hare, little gestures and attitudes...How he wished to cut him open to see his entrails, and to have witnessed the transformation. About the first, he would have surely done it already, if it wasn't for the others' presence.

Demoman, on the other hand, was the one who worked the hardest, who read with closest attention, trying to find something, anything. He was quite familiar with curses, superstition and witchcraft, so he was good at this task. But he didn't give his hundred percent because the matter was appealing to him: he still felt tremendously bad for having encouraged Sniper to shoot at Scout. It was true that he didn't know it was him, there was no way he could have known, but he still felt he was in debt with him. He wasn't going to let the boy stay like that for the rest of his life. (Would he have the lifespan of a human or a hare? That question unsettled him.)

Enginner and Heavy exchanged impressions. Both were reading books with seemed to be written in a language that looked like the mixture of Aramaic and Quechua, and they had to be careful because both were very tricky: they had already found synonyms of 'death' which could be mistaken for 'transformation'.

"Eh! Pssst! Eh! Maybe I got the solution to your problem. Why don't you open me and take a little look?"

The Bombinomicon wouldn't stop calling them from a corner. After a while, nobody paid attention to him; it would get tired eventually. That was another danger: there were books it was better not to open.

Scout put aside a book which turned out to be some sort of manual to generate plagues. They had been searching for hours without rest. There were only a few books without reading and they still hadn't found a cure. Merasmus had not lied to them: those books taught how to cast curses, not to cure them.

Heavy caressed his own chin as he examine done.

"Is this spell Merasmus did to you?"

Scout approached and placed his paws on his lap to look. It was an illustrated manual: it showed which gestures to make, which word to mutter to turn a person into an animal. A picture showed a poor dude turning into a cow, and the end of the page showed a farm full of cows, bulls and calves, and, on one side, a wizard eating enthusiastically a hamburger. That made him shiver. He nodded to Heavy. He moved aside to leave him some room and together they examined with great attention the pages dedicated to transformation. It was quite a coincidence that the language in which it was written was Russian. A pretty old Russian, but understandable to Heavy after all. As he read, Scout examined with attention the symbols and images. They had near a dictionary of symbols and he already knew what the most frequent meant and which ones had the key to his salvation.

Heavy finally closed the book.

"It does not say how to break it."

"Shit..." Scout sighed. The others were examining the little books left, excluding two which could not be opened or shouldn't be, and seeing how fast they were turning the pages, it seemed the solution was not in them.

* * *

"Sabriiiina! It is Merasmus!"

That Sabrina lady hanged up and Merasmus was left staring at the phone. With a gesture of despise, he hanged up too.

"Bah, she's nothing but a cheap fortune-teller."

"You are not very popular, I see" Spy observed.

"No, and Soldier is to blame, I'm telling you."

"Certainly, that does not surprise me."

Spy lit a cigarette. He had practically just finished one. He was so nervous he couldn't stop smoking. They had reached the end of Merasmus' phone book and they had found no one could help them solve their problem. Eight didn't want to have anything to do with him, seven had died (in frankly strange ways, like devoured by gigantic maggots, lost in a bottomless pit, due to a poorly executed spell...) and the rest, even though there were some who practiced white magic, had no solution to those curses. As one of them had explained to them, someone called Alberto, there were hexes which simply had no cure, as much magic one used on them. He had suggested Merasmus to use a spell to turn animals into humans, but Merasmus replied that it wouldn't work with humans turned into animals. Spy couldn't see why and insisted on trying, but the two wizards overwhelmed him with arguments which supported Merasmus' idea which he didn't understand.

Sniper rejoined the group.

"Did you have luck?" Spy asked.

Sniper shook his head.

"The lady can make animals talk, but that's all. I got her address, in case..."

'In case that's all we have'. Sniper didn't finish the sentence. It would have not been nice from him to say that.

Soon Soldier and Pyro returned.

"I hope you didn't burn his house." Spy told them, seeing Pyro walk that particular way, which he did after burning things.

"We burnt his house, but before that he told us that the only spell he had was one to make stuffed rabbit" Soldier replied.

"Mph mmh mmhmhmh mmph...¡mhmjhmh!" Pyro commented.

"Translation?" Merasmus looked at her teammates, which were surely more used to decypher his words.

"He insist on what that lady with the wart that talked told us." Spy replied. "The 'prince frog' spell. It is not going to work, Pyro. Scout already kissed Pauling and stayed a hare."

He tossed his cigarette to the ground with sorrow.

"Let us see if the others have found something in those books..."

He was the first to walk away, while Merasmus walked slowly, beside Soldier.

"He's French," he explained to him, "and he's in America. That's why he's always so sour."

"Hmpf. I don't know why he's so eager to bring that boy to his original form, anyway. Like if he was his father."


	9. Spy's determination

Demoman drowned his frustration in alcohol. Sniper played with a bullet he had on the poker table. Heavy seemed to have fallen asleep on his chair, with his arms crossed, but he was actually meditating. Medic tapped his fingers on the surface of the cup. Until he spoke, the room had been in silence, an uncomfortable, sad silence.

"What if we transfer his mind to a new body?"

"To a clone?"

"Or a new, mechanical, better version of him, to which we can turn the volume off."

Hopelessness had fallen over the team. Things did not look good at all. Merasmus had done all he could and nothing had worked. Now they could only wonder what would happen to Scout. They waited till the boy went to sleep to ponder about it, about the few scientific options they had, as unviable as magic.

At first, the Administrator and Pauling wouldn't believe a single word about what had happened, they would have a bad time convincing them that they were not kidding them with stories about boys being turned into anumals. Anyway, being believed meant nothing. A hare wasn't useful to Mann. He couldn't even hold a weapon. Thus, the company would kick him out and put someone else in his place. And Scout, Jeremy...Well, perhaps if they took him home and helped him convince his mother that the bunny they presented her was her son...And, once at home, what?

Scout did well going to bed early. What awaited him was not pleasant.

"You know what? Screw it. Let's turn this into the Animal Team. Animal body, human mind. Fierce. Wild. Yes! Team Animal Fortress!"

"Eeeeeeeh. No."

"But..."

"No, Solder."

"Then tell me what we can do."

"I got an idea...Beat the wizard up!"

Spy got up, left the room and approached Scout's bedroom. The boy slept, finally in his room and on a real bed, almost hidden under the sheets. He looked pretty placid. It kind of surprised Spy that he could have fallen asleep after the bad news of that day. He supposed he was dead tired. Careful not to make a noise, he approached the bed and sat on its edge to look at him. He still hadn't come to terms with the idea that this animal was Scout. But he was. Frankly, he regretted all those times when he had mocked him calling him 'jumping rabbit'.

Again with discrection, Spu ran a finger on his head, like a caress. He had to take the most of him being asleep. Anyway, he already had an excuse, in case he woke up and caught him.

They would find a way to bring him back to normal. Even if they had to travel the world looking for books and magicians, even if they had to fight against those who could do something and were not collaborating and force them. If the team didn't want to take the risk, he would do it alone.

Spy bent over Scout. The hare cringed and he stopped; it was only a spasm produced during the sleep. Spy went on.

He knew he had disappointed him a lot in the past, but this time he wouldn't leave him alone. He swore on his life. "I won't let you spend the rest of your life like this", he told him without parting his lips. And he left a soft kiss on his head.

Then, Scout shook again, this time with more violence, making Spy draw back. Before his very eyes, the young man started to change.

He did in such a fast but soft way that it didn't interrupt Scout's slumber. The ears shrunk. His little boy enlarged. The fur started to get stuck in the sheets, except the one in his head. The arms and legs became longer. The fingers and toes moved. The tail regressed until it disappeared.

Scout let out a little grunt, turned around again, then shivered, feeling suddenly cold, and opened his eyes lazily. When he saw Spy, he jumped.

"Holy crap, Spy, what are you do...?!

He stopped, realizing that he had just heard his own voice again. He got up in a jump and felt his chest, then the face, tossed the sheets aside and looked at his legs. It took him a bit to convince himself that this was not a dream. He removed the tufts of hair which ended up glued to his skin. He moved his fingers before his eyes. It was not a dream. He was not dreaming. It was real. He was himself again. He was human. He was like he used to be. When he idea hit his head, Scout let out a loud chuckle and jumped out of the bed to dance around his partner.

"I'm back! HAHAHA! I'm back! How?! Did you find something? Did the braniacs invent something? Bah, who cares? I'm back! Girls of the world, I'm back!"

He was so euphoric that he ran to hug Spy. He didn't react.

The door burst open.

"Scout! Wake up! We got Merasmus inside the trunk of my car! Since he's not going to make you a human, we're gonna...!"

Soldier stopped when he saw his teammate back to his original form.

"...There's no need to...?"

"No, Soldier!"

"Ah, then...Where do we have the first aid kit?"

"Hey, guys! Get the beers! I'm me again!" Scout didn't give a hoot about being naked. He ran out of the room to join his partners.

Soon exclamations of surprise and the others' voices were heard. Soldier approached Spy.

"How the hell did that happen?"

Spy didn't reply, so he replied to himself.

"I guess the spell had an expiration date."

Satisfied, Soldier walked out to get Merasmus out of the trunk before he ran out of air. Spy stayed there. Once alone, he slowly ran a hand through his face.


	10. Back to normal

They knocked at the door. Spy, who was wandering the smoking room with a cigarette in his hand, replied without stopping:

"Go away."

"Spy, it's me. Scout."

"...Come in."

Scout opened the door and had the consideration of closing it behind him. The two mercenaries were in silence for a while, avoiding looking at each other to the face. Scout cleared his throat and at last was able to find the word to initiate that awkward but necessary conversation.

"Is...everything alright?"

"Yes. And you? How are you?"

"Well, my whole body itches. But I'm fine, yeah. It's great to have hands again and being able to talk."

Spy nodded at that response.

"Truth is...I hate to admit it, but it was thanks to you."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"I...Hm..."

"You protected me. Hadn't been for you, I'd be dead."

"Ah. Yes. No...problem."

"Don't worry, in five minutes we'll both forget we had this conversation. I just wanted to tell you not...to seem ingrate and stuff."

"That was nice from you."

Silence again, why was it so difficult for them to hold a conversation?

"Tell me something, Spy" Scout's tone went more serious, his fine smile vanished. "If I hadn't made it...If I had never gone back home...What would you have done?"

Spy forced himself to look at the boy to the eyes.

"I suppose lament having kicked you out for the rest of my life." he admitted.

"Would you have taken care of my mom?"

"..."

"Well, that doesn't matter now, I guess..."

"Yes."

"Welp, I'm leaving you alone with your...whatever the hell you do here."

Scout was about to go when Spy stopped him grabbing his wrist. Scout turned around and Spy raised his hand a bit. Whatever he was thinking of doing with it, he changed his mind, because he closed it and lowered it.

"I am proud of how you faced this situation."

"Spy...Wait. I think you got...fever" Scout extended a had to touch his forehead. "You're...you're delirious."

"I'm sorry you don't believe it, but I am being sincere. You did it very well, petit lapin."

"I don't know what you just said, but I hope it has nothing to do with rabbits."

Spy smiled with malice.

"Oh, you're going to have at least twenty-three years of rabbit references."

"Go to hell, Spy."

Scout walked out of the room. He didn't take a single step after getting out. He turned towards the door again, feeling tempted to get in again.

What was Spy doing in his bedroom while he was asleep?

He had to see what happened. He didn't believe the curse vanished on its own. Spy knew something. He had to know.

He meditated for some moments. Then, he shook his head and walked to the kitchen.

Maybe one day Spy would tell him. That day would be pretty long because that damned man kept many, many things to himself.

* * *

"Merasmus. It is Spy. I came alone and my intentions are good."

The wizard seemed not to trust him, Spy deducted it from the time it took him to open the door. Truth was that he didn't blame him, after what happened. Finally, Merasmus looked through the hole in the door fist and then opened it. He still had marks of the delicate treatment his teammates had given him. It was not surprising that he didn't want to open. Of course, he didn't trust him, being a spy, but he supposed he had no alternative.

"You have won this time, mortals, but soon I will rise and you will get..."

"Yes, yes, of course. I have a question for you."

Merasmus got comfortable on his armchair. Spy was sat in front of him, on a similar one. It felt weird to sit on something so sofisticated and old when they were inside of a storage unit. Again, those were objects he had managed to save, this time from the claws and jaws of the racoons. Spy had noted they were pretty shabby and smelt funny.

"I don't understand what happened."

"Vey well, let's see" Merasmus stopped and gazed at him. "What did you do to him, exactly?"

"I gave him a kiss."

"A kiss?"

"Yes, on the head. A little peck. Nothing else. I didn't say magic words or anything of the sort.

Spy frowned when he saw Merasmus raise his eyebrows and mutter 'oooooooh...' before giving him a funny look.

"What?"

"It turns out old Deedee was right..."

"Speak clear."

"It was certainly a 'frog prince' spell. I have to write that down. It seems that the spell I have always used is a modern version, but the basis is till the same. Interesting..."

"So, the solution was a simple kiss?"

"No. Not a simple kiss. Have you ever read a fairytale?" Spy kept the answer to himself, so Merasmus continued. "A true love's kiss breaks the spell."

"A true love's kiss?"

"Yes."

Spy looked away and Merasmus looked at him in such a way that Spy turned his gaze back at him.

"Merasmus does not meddle in anybody's life. Next time, spy, teach the pup to control himself."

"I would need a lot of magic for that."

Spy smiled to himself. No. Not even magic would calm Scout down.

He wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

* * *

THE END


End file.
